Before heading to Australia, although I had heard and read about the typical Australia stereotypes, I didn’t expect to find too much about the Aussie culture that would surprise me. They speak English and are a part of the developed world, so really, how different could it be from America? Coming from my winter spent teaching English in Ukraine, I couldn’t picture a better place to travel to that could provide me with the missing comforts of home than down under.
It’s been over a year now since my flight to Australia, and I must say that there have actually been a number of shocking discoveries in respect to my American expectations. Here are the five that top my list.
1. Lack of Mexican Food – Recently on Twitter, a group of American travelers arrived in Sydney and were in search of a good Mexican meal. I laughed. I responded. Then, I laughed some more. In all honesty, I hated to be the one to break it to them, but out of respect for fellow Mexican-loving taste-buds, I had to inform them that Mexican is one of the cultural delights that didn’t quite make its mark on the Australian people. Sure, you can find the best Asian food, and you can find a superb coffee, but a good taco, quesadilla or chimichanga is few and far between. And, to prove my point, I’d like to talk about the time I ordered some nachos from a cafe I normally enjoy. I received chips with spaghetti sauce on them. Tip: forget your homely comfort foods and try one of these iconic Aussie foods!
2. Lack of Free Wi-Fi – For being such an advanced country, Australia could definitely be classified as a bit backwards when it comes to the Internet. Monthly packages that are dependent on Gigabytes of usage? Please, that is so 1999. However, that is the way it works in Australia, often resulting in very few locations providing free Wi-Fi points for travelers to connect to. If you’re used to being connected 24/7 back in the States, be prepared to pay for it in Oz.
3. Lack of Late-Night Dining & Shopping – A funny thing that happened recently was the announcement of a local Kmart shopping center extending its shopping hours to midnight. Coming from a culture where 24-hour Wal-marts and restaurants are the norm, I couldn’t believe that something quite like that would be news. The truth is that a lot of Australia shuts down in the evening, and even though that’s definitely not a bad thing, there have been times where I just wanted to sit down late at night with some friends and a snack instead of going to a club. The conveniences provided by a get-what-you-want-when-you-want-it culture are easily missed when that is something you’ve been previously accustomed to.
4. Open Use of the C-word – So I’d heard rumours about the funny Australian slang and accent, but I was surprised to hear the frequent use of the C Word! If there was ever a word that could make me cringe at its sound, it would be this one. For some reason Americans seem to hold the C-word as one of THE bad words – the type of word you wouldn’t even let cross your mind when in the same room as your mother. The Aussies, on the other hand, will often toss it around when talking to one of their best mates!
5. The Language & Accent in General – Yes, they are speaking English in Australia, but the part that will leave an American in confusion is the amount of slang running through their conversations. Cut-off words are just a small reason Arj Barker, an American comedian, joked that the responsibility for understanding what has been said in an Australian conversation is simply left up to the person listening. The person talking, on the other hand, can make up words as he goes and is never expected to explain himself along the way (or so it may seem).
About the Author: Brooke Schoenman is the expert author for WhyGo Australia, an online travel guide with life. She currently resides in Sydney, Australia and tweets about her Aussie life daily.
By the C- word is the article referring to the words “Cancer” or Cunt”?
The 4 letter word!
what is the C word ?
There’s a lot of lies peddled about “free” health care that many people sadly believe as there is little rebuttal and those that do are quickly silenced. It’ll take way to long to post as it will turn into a long thesis no one will read.
I’m Australian and I live in Australia and there IS free healcare. You just walk right in to a hospital and they help you. They should have this in every country.
In literally went to the doctors last week. Walked in, had a consultation, walked out. I don’t remember it any other way
Yes, I agree, just walk into a doctor that supports fully Medicare – most do – and it’s free. There might be a bit of wait though. You don’t have to be a pensioner or on a social or health benefit or anything like that. See: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/medicare
The most shocking thing to me is that Australia bans convicted criminals from entering the country, even though it is the only country in the world founded by convicted convicts. How’s that for strange?
It was also founded by pockets of free settlers in south Australia, not just convicts.
I don’t believe you.
How about all the free settlers from the latter 19th century and in particular after WW2? They were ALL free settlers, no convicts there. People and families from free settlers outnumber those with a convict background 10 to 1 – at the very least. As time goes by those with a convict background will decrease to less that 1% of the whole population, probably by the end of the century.
Enzo, check out South Australia’s history again, might surprise you..
The British also sent about 50000 convicts to the US and only started sending convicts to Australia after the war of independence. Aust. received about 160000 convicts. But Australia‘s population really boomed due to the gold rush in the 19C from just over 400,000 to 1.7 million. So we are really founded on gold!
well at least us Australians dont have tornados and have no chalkbords in some of our schools!
(i’m very offended by all of this bull*bleep*!)
(and by the way, the C- word is C-R-A-P)
(also, WE DONT USE ASTRALIAN SLANG 24/7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I watch Wentworth and I’m from America and Australia people seem funny
I’m ‘Murrican and I love Aussies! Great beer, friendly people
That’s it? What a stupid post. Better of not writing anything at all.
Aussie Aussie Aussie OI OI OI LOL
i lived in wollongong, nsw for 2 years (i’m american) and one thing i definitely noticed whenever i encountered other yankees is that american females definitely love australia more than american males.i think that has something to do with the fact that american men are constantly portrayed as “alpha males” in the australian media (tv, movies, etc.) and therefore when you deal with australian dudes they often have an attitude with ya simply because of yer accent. females obviously don’t have that issue. australian females, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. they hear yer accent and they fall at yer feet.
Here in America we used to shut stores down at those hours until the 1990s super store phase. It has to do with corporations and very little to do with capitalism. We left capitalism quite some time ago and money is in the hands of a few and runs parallel to soft communism.
so the C word is usually only used by bogans. it is still unacceptable to most people.